Writers Toolkit

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When Microsoft Word 2013 (part of Office 365) decided not to support UK writers we had a rant! In fact, we were quite prepared and ready to start a revolt campaign against them, but quite frankly who has the time and botheration when your novels are waiting to be written and self-published. So (sighhhh), instead we decided to find some alternatives to Microsoft Word.

Writing a full novel manuscript takes a lot of research and time to write it. Only another novelist or aspiring author knows the full commitment and sacrifice it takes to write a novel, often described by the cliché ‘blood, sweat and tears’.

So how does this same writer not cause any further pain when they save their work?

Microsoft Word 2013 (part of Office 365) has decided not to support UK writers! Shocking isn’t it? Some of the small things that both business and creative writers found useful in a word processing package have been removed by the ‘know-it-all’ mighty Microsoft!

For example the ability to select a correct spelling for often mis-spelt words. This was very handy in the 2010 version of Word but no longer in the 2013 version. Grrr!

The biggest pain for UK writers is the dictionary. 2013 does not give you UK English. It only gives you US English. Grrrr again!

Readers love devouring supernatural stories and delving into a paranormal character's life. They love to escape from their own world and absorb the challenges that these paranormal creatures experience.

So, as a self-published writer of the supernatural genre, how do you learn the difference between a paranormal novel and a story with a supernatural elements? How do you tell if you are lapping over into science fiction? Or maybe you need some guidance to help you distinguish if you're actually writing fantasy instead of supernatural or paranormal themes.

Scrivener is a powerful content-generation tool for writers that allows you to concentrate on composing and structuring long and difficult documents. It is every authors, writers, novelist, aspiring writers or self published writer's dream! And you could win it!

Writing a novel, research paper, script or any long-form text involves more than hammering away at the keys until you’re done.

While Scrivener gives you complete control of the formatting, its focus is on helping you get to the end of that awkward first draft.

While you're writing the book that you may (or may not) intend to self-publish, you'll most likely dive into a wide variety of different dictionaries and thesauruses. Like you, we wanted to find out the most popular and best dictionary list for writers to keep to hand during the fiction writing process. And of course, the editing thereafter.

Writing a book is only the first step. Authors now have more choices than ever when it comes to getting their books into print. Or not into print—many authors choose to publish their works only as ebooks. How can you decide what path is right for you?

Guest Writer, Cathy Stucker, shares her insights into Self Publishing for new authors and aspiring novelists.